Reach For The Stars Pediatric Therapy Blog

Reach For The Stars with this pediatric therapy and autism services blog by the national early intervention company Achieve Beyond serving CA, CT, FL, MD, NJ, NY and VA continuing to expand. This blog features stories about special needs children, professional therapists and editorials for special needs parents.

There are a lot of sensory elements at the dentist’s office like loud noises, bright lights, as well as new tastes and smells. While this can be difficult for a child at first, they usually become more comfortable at each appointment. However, these sensory issues can be much harder for children with autism. Despite these difficulties, there are many ways to help your child with autism prepare for the dentist. I have been practicing family dentistry for 17 years and have worked with many families to help prepare their children for dental visits. I’ve compiled a list of the best tips that you can try with your child before their first dental appointment. Ask plenty of questions One of the best ways to prepare for your child’s first dental appointment, is to ask your dentist a lot of questions. This is a great way for getting detailed information about what...

As summer is in full gear, many family reunions take place that can be challenging for children with ASD. It is not uncommon to encounter some difficulties related to changes in our environment and how we deal with them. This article is intended to provide some helpful tips based on the principles of ABA to help you make a positive and successful experience during family reunions! Regardless if you have ASD, there will always be a mix of personalities when relatives gather together. Therefore, we need to be realistic with our expectations on what we expect from our children during the gatherings such as family reunions. Tip 1: Pair your relatives: If you are concerned that your child will refrain from engaging with relatives whom they don’t get to see as often, re-arrange the environment in such a way so that your child will want to interact with their relatives....

The summer break provides great opportunities for families and children to experience new activities, explore new locations, relax and stay in, forget about homework, say no to early mornings, and take a break from the overall rigid structure an academic environment provides. However, completely removing those structures and routines may not be the best approach for all children with ASD. All individuals, regardless of disability status or age, must move (i.e., transition) between multiple tasks and activities throughout the day (Sterling-Turner & Jordan, 2007) . In addition to difficulties in social relationships and communication, some individuals with autism may exhibit behavioral difficulties associated with changes in routines (American Psychiatric Association, 2000) . For most families, summer schedules include changes in routines such as shorter days in summer school, new teachers, babysitters/therapy providers and overall longer unstructured times. Be prepared to tackle on this summer by utilizing some of these tips...

Practice makes progress! Practice visiting similar places in advance. Show your child pictures and videos of where you will go. Talk about the trip in the weeks prior to departure. Use a timer to practice for waiting. Contact guest services in advance! Many theme parks, airlines, and hotels will provide special accommodations for your child. Prepare for sensory issues, special diets, limit waiting time, etc. Provide choices! Let your child help to choose toys and snacks to bring with them. Let them choose which seat they will sit in or whose hand they will hold. Allow your child to take a break from the activity if they need to. Prepare for sensory concerns! Pack noise cancelling headphones/earplugs. On the plane choose seats towards the front for less noise. Bring a variety of fidget toys for your child to hold. Prepare to board first to avoid the crowds. Safety first! Consider...

Our children are born in a world where television shows can be watched any time they want on multiple devices around the house. Tablets, computers, & smartphones are accessible to even the most economically challenged families. The overwhelming options can be difficult for parents to navigate as they raise their family. Risks of too much media & technology use include negative health effects on weight & sleep, exposure to content that is inappropriate & issues of confidentiality. According to the American Association for Pediatrics, families should avoid digital media use (except video-chatting) in children younger than 18 to 24 months. For children ages 18 to 24 months of age, if you want to introduce digital media, choose high-quality programming & use media together with your child. Avoid solo media use in this age group. For children 2 to 5 years of age, limit screen use to 1 hour per day...

Children develop language skills at different times. Language development can also depend on a variety of factors including: their natural ability to learn language, other skills that they are learning at the same time, how much talking they hear during the day and what kind of response is given to when they do speak or attempt to speak ("Late Blooming or Language Problem?")

According to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), there are several risk factors to consider when analyzing a potential learning delay

Independence is a valuable part of our daily routines and significantly enhances the quality of life. Even at young ages, a child should be encouraged to develop independent living skills . As a children’s motor and cognitive skills increase, their ability to complete these tasks also increases. By fostering independence in a child’s early years, parents can help make daily living skills become part of a routine rather than a difficult chore. To accomplish this goal, parents can encourage their children by creating opportunities, providing choices, and reinforcing behavior.

Here is a great craft activity to do with your children where sensory issues will not be a problem. Painting with clothespins! This allows your children to be creative and play with different textures while staying clean at the same time. Who doesn't love an arts and crafts activity that keeps the clean up to a minimum? Watch this video by Whats Up Moms to get the full instructions.

By: Michelle Segretto, LMSW, BCBA, LBA Clinical Supervisor Welcome parents to our Achieve Beyond Quarterly newsletter! I'm sure everyone is welcoming summer and adjusting to the new summer schedules. New schedules and changes very often lead to challenging behaviors in children (neurotypical and children with diagnoses alike!). This article is intended to provide useful information for your child to get optimal results from the insurance based ABA services. In the most recent publication of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA), new evidenced based information was provided regarding how caregiver's preferences to different types of interventions influence the likelihood that the child's treatment will be effective. The more the parent/teacher agrees with the type of intervention that is being recommended, better results from the behavior intervention plan will occur. Any type of change in a person's life may elicit new behaviors. This is especially apparent with children diagnosed with Autism...

Hello and welcome to our first newsletter for all of our wonderful families! We at Achieve Beyond are so grateful to be providing ABA for your child and we want to ensure that we are providing you with the best resources we have available! In keeping with that idea, we are going to be sending out quarterly newsletters that will inform you of any new policies and procedures, new research in the field, stories to make you smile, and activities and resources that your family may be interested in! Please feel free to give us suggestions and feedback in order to help us help you! Just as we get to know you and your family, I think it is important for all of you to know a little about our history! Achieve Beyond was founded in 1995 by Trudy Font-Padron to meet the needs of developmentally delayed and disabled children...

We would love to see you at our fundraiser for PeerPals.org & NSASA on August 6th at Croxley's Ale House in Farmingdale. There will be raffle prizes, a 50/50 raffle, children's entertainment and $5 draft beer specials from the Croxley's favorite list.

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Achieve Beyond Pediatric Therapy & Autism Services and the Association for Science in Autism Treatment (ASAT) hosted their 2nd Annual Autism Conference at the Sheraton LaGuardia East Hotel in Flushing, New York. The all day conference featured a keynote presentation by Daniel W. Mruzek, Ph.D, BCBA-D , covering the topic of Scientist Practitioners in the classroom: Using Data to Guide Our Student's Programs, along with presentations by Mary McDonald, Ph.D, BCBA-D and Ruth Donlin M.S. The conference featured vendors within the Autism community including Eden II Genesis Outreach Autism Center, Discovery Toys, Achieve Beyond, ASAT and Inspiration Speaks. The BACB CEU conference was well attended by many behavior analysts, special educators, social workers and parents as well. This is a conference Achieve Beyond and ASAT will continue to work together to host in the years to come. Here is a photo slideshow of the Achieve Beyond / ASAT Autism Conference...